Camshaft leak, stalling, followed by engine light

[mrk]

After my previous disaster with fuses my 2001 W203 Coupe has been running great. Until I brought it in for a service that is. The mechanic replaced the camshaft magnet saying that it was leaking oil, and he replaced the wiring loom and cleaned it all up. Fair enough. I take it home and then the problems began.

After a week of problems with stalling (revs would drop to below 500 when the foot went onto the clutch) and surging revs when the engine was cold, they replaced the lambda sensor, and things seemed a bit better. At first. The stalling went away, but it's still touch and go now. And then this evening the engine light appeared at the end of a 30 mile drive.

Can anyone suggest what else might be the problem? It's not that i don't trust the mechanic, I just can't afford to keep doing the hokey cokey with this car, as it's been in and out of the garage about 4 times in a week with marginal improvements. I'd rather just ask him to try a few things in succession, but I could do with some suggestions as to what else could be causing it.

Also, what's the consensus about continuing to drive the car once the warning light comes on? I can't do anything until Monday afternoon but really need transport in the meantime. Am I at risk of complete breakdown if I continue to drive it?

Cheers,

Maurice

 

[miro]

Seems he didnt reset the engine module or clear the faults. Or it has oil in it.

2001 cars had really crap firmware. It does a thing called IDLE HUNTING which by rights should have been done by the dealer under warranty.

IT can stall during idle hunting especially when the engine is very hot and under high load.

The other logical thing to look at is the spark plugs, air filter, oil filter, fuel filter. Crankshaft angle sensor.

Start with a fault code check. Just guessing.

 

[sheff1972]

poss oil in harness

you need to check if you have oil in the electrical plug at the camshaft adjuster magnet ,if so you will find it will have pushed its way to the o2 sensor and various other places , the main concern is if oil has reached the engine ecu. this is a repair that can be very costly you need to get a experienced mercedes tech to look at as soon as possible. when the harness was replaced was a modified wiring link fitted part numbers starts A271 approx cost £14 , this stops the oil getting in again

 

[mrk]

2001 cars had really crap firmware. It does a thing called IDLE HUNTING which by rights should have been done by the dealer under warranty.

IT can stall during idle hunting especially when the engine is very hot and under high load.

What are the symptoms of this idle hunting?

Cheers,

Maurice

 

[mrk]

you need to check if you have oil in the electrical plug at the camshaft adjuster magnet ,if so you will find it will have pushed its way to the o2 sensor and various other places , the main concern is if oil has reached the engine ecu. this is a repair that can be very costly you need to get a experienced mercedes tech to look at as soon as possible. when the harness was replaced was a modified wiring link fitted part numbers starts A271 approx cost £14 , this stops the oil getting in again

There was oil in the electrical plug and it had started to make it's way down the wiring loom. The mechanic had cleaned everything up and replaced the wiring loom with a modified loom. He's since replaced the O2/Lambda sensor which improved things initially, but the revs still occasionally drop down to below 500rpm and then this engine warning light came on.

The mechanic is an experienced Mercedes engineer - he specialises in them. I'm pretty happy with his abilities, but I just can't afford to waste any more time in the "suck it and see" methods we're using to sort the issue right now.

Cheers,

Maurice